"Among friends one has the privilege of saying nothing; the civility consists in the assumption that one's silence will be civilly understood. I can imagine a small gathering of friends who say nothing all evening: they recoil from saying anything that the others don't want to hear; and their silence would be the subtlest courtesy."

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Source: Allen Tate (1967). “T. S. Eliot: The Man and His Work”, London : Chatto & Windus

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Allen Tate

Poet, Critic

Allen Tate was an influential American poet and essayist known for his exploration of Southern identity and culture, particularly in works like 'The Fathers.'

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"According to its doctors, my one intransigent desire is to have been a Confederate general, and because I could not or would not become anything else, I set up for poet and beg an to invent fictions about the personal ambitions that my society has no use for."

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"The dusk runs down the lane driven like hail; Far off a precise whistle is escheat To the dark; and then the towering weak and pale."

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